38 and 40 Albert Road

Summary

Former public house, 1901, by James Cackett and Robert Burns Dick of Newcastle for brewer Sir John Fitzgerald, now in commercial and residential use.

Reasons for Designation

38 and 40 Albert Road is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* it is a handsome and good-quality building incorporating a number of elegant neoclassical features to the ground floor which is enlivened by a frieze of escutcheons and festoons above canted bays;
* designed by architects James Cackett (1860-1928) and Robert Burns Dick (1868-1954), who were responsible for designing a number of iconic buildings in Tyneside, including the Bridge Hotel (Grade II), with which this building shares a number of similarities.

Historic interest

* the building is part of Middlesbrough’s high-quality Victorian and Edwardian townscape that was the nucleus of the town’s expansion during the second half of the C19 and the start of the C20 when it was a major centre in Britain for the production of iron, and later steel.

History

Middlesbrough owes its existence to the industrial revolution and a demand for coal and steel. Its growth from a small farming community of around 25 people in 1801 to one of over 90,000 inhabitants by the end of the C19 has been described as unprecedented in British urban history. The growth was spearheaded by a group of Quaker businessmen headed by Joseph Pease of Darlington who speculatively purchased the Middlesbrough estate, realising the potential of the area, planned the town alongside a new port, and extending the Stockton and Darlington Railway to the banks of the Tees in 1828.

The new town was developed in the 1830s in a grid pattern in an area north of the station and centred around the ‘Market Square’, now the location of the Old Town Hall and Clock Tower (both 1846 and Grade II listed). Further expansion came in the 1850s with the discovery of substantial ironstone deposits in the Cleveland Hills, exploited by the industrialist Henry Bolckow (1806-1878) and John Vaughan (1799-1868) who constructed the town’s first iron foundry. The town was incorporated in 1853, and by 1865 Middlesbrough had become the world’s largest producer of iron, generating a third of Britain’s output. The switch to steel saw Middlesbrough as one of Britain’s leading steel production centres. The area around the station became the focus of Middlesbrough’s financial and commercial district, undergoing significant development in 1870s.

Following the Second World War, Middlesbrough suffered from industrial decline and large parts of the old town were cleared; the Royal Exchange, once a focal point for the financial and corporate life of the town, was demolished to make way for the elevated A66 road in 1985.

Albert Road was laid out in 1856. Number 38-40 was constructed in 1901 to designs by James Cackett (1860-1928) and Robert Burns Dick (1868-1954) for Sir John Fitzgerald (1857-1930), an Irish born brewer and wine and spirit merchant based in Newcastle. Cackett and Burns Dick designed a number of iconic buildings in Tyneside including the Laing Art Gallery (1903-1904) and the pylons of the Tyne Bridge (1925-1928). Number 38-40 was constructed at the same time as the Bridge Hotel in Newcastle (National Heritage List for England (NHLE) entry 1320030), also for Sir John Fitzgerald, with which it holds a number of similarities. The gable was partly rebuilt in the mid-C20, and the early- to mid-C20 bow-bay shop front was replaced in the early C21 when the property was converted from a public house (The Albert) to residential use.

Details

Former public house, 1901, by James Cackett and Robert Burns Dick of Newcastle for brewer Sir John Fitzgerald, now in commercial and residential use.

MATERIALS: red brick, in Flemish bond, with painted stone and stucco dressings. It has a modern timber shop front and a Welsh slate roof.

PLAN: the building occupies a rectangular plot with the principal elevation facing west onto Albert Road, and various rear extensions with access from Albert Mews.

EXTERIOR: gable fronted, the building has three storeys with attics and is two bays wide. Flanking the shop front are renewed panelled doors under fanlights with iron grilles and an enriched frieze with swags and tassels. The modern shop front is recessed behind flanking columns-in-antis with moulded bases and acanthus capitals. Above is a plain fascia and cornice. On the first and second floors are two four-light canted bay windows supported on thin brackets. The bays have sashes with glazing bars in the upper parts. On the second floor the bays have a frieze enriched with escutcheons and festoons, and above is a deep but narrow cornice on thin brackets. The attic storey has a plain gable with four coupled sash windows flanked by ornate shaped iron rainwater heads. The roof has renewed truncated end stacks.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

59680

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of York: North Riding, (1923), 268-273
Pevsner, N, Grenville, J, The Buildings of England: Yorkshire: The North Riding, (2023), 451

Other
Middlesbrough MBC, 2008, ‘Middlesbrough Historic Quarter Conservation Area Character Appraisal and Management Plan’, unpublished document
Johnson, M, 2021, Ironopolis: The Architecture of Middlesbrough, Amberley Publishing pp 62-62

End of official list entry